“Oriel is very big but really fun”

Oriel High School celebrates its best ever results in 2015

‘Students are polite, friendly and continue to behave very well in lessons and around the school’

Ofsted 2016

In 2015 52% of A level grades were A*-B.

‘Staff morale is very high’

Ofsted 2016

60% of our students achieved 5+ GCSE passes with English & Maths in 2015

About Oriel

Oriel High School opened to students in September 2004. The school continues to accept a new entry of year 7 students in each academic year. Our Sixth Form opened in 2008, with a full 11-18 school operating by 2009.

All students in Years 7 to 11 belong to one of our four Learning Communities – named after the continents Africa, Americas, Asia and Australasia. Students are taught by specialist teachers, and also belong to a Learning Mentor Group. Each Learning Community is overseen by a Head of Community and assisted by a Deputy Head of Community and non-teaching Pastoral Coordinator.

School Admissions arrangements

Most students attending the school live within the catchment area which comprises the wards of Maidenbower, Worth & Pound Hill South, (view the catchment area map here Oriel High School Catchment Area.pdf) and transfer from one of the local junior schools: Maidenbower Junior School, Pound Hill Junior School and The Oaks. However, we had students from 28 different schools transfer to us in September.

Oriel High School’s admissions are managed by West Sussex County Council. Click the link below to apply and find out further information about appeals if the school is over subscribed.

At Oriel High School we enjoy a strong sense of community amongst students and staff and we value this throughout the school. We are an inclusive school and we take every measure to ensure that all students can access and benefit from the broad curriculum we offer. Oriel High School holds the Dyslexia Aware mark for its excellent work in this area. We also hold Healthy Schools status and our work in encouraging and enabling our students to live and develop healthier lifestyles is being recognised. We also hold Investor in Careers status.

Since the school’s first GCSE examinations in 2007, results have continued to improve, culminating in 2015 with Year 11 gaining an impressive 60% of students gaining 5 A*-C grades, including English & Maths, at GCSE.. We were especially pleased with this increase as outcomes for our most able students was one of our areas for development.

The sixth form is now established and highly successful. This summer’s results are reward for the hard work and dedication shown. The overall pass rate was a very pleasing 98% with 55% of these passes at grades A*, A & B. (an increase of 5% on 2013). An impressive 15% of all grades were awarded at A* for exceptional performance in the A2 year of the two year A’ level course, a new record for Oriel High School.

Oriel High School remains ambitious for our students and for our school and we are excited about the journey ahead.

Oriel High School has been inspected four times by Ofsted since the school was opened in September 2004. Ofsted carried out our fourth inspection in March 2016. The previous inspection report in 2012 had graded the school as ‘Good’. We were delighted as a school community that Ofsted had seen sustained improvements in our school since their last visit and Oriel High School continued to be graded graded as a ‘Good’ school overall.

What pleased us most was the acknowledgement that we are improving all the time and have the capacity to improve further, which is very much part of our vision and school development plan. A copy of the report is attached below.